Show in F1: Emergency meeting between Ecclestone, Todt and Di Montezemolo

The Bahrain Grand Prix weekend is expected to be the scene of a high-level meeting between Jean Todt, the FIA president, Bernie Ecclestone, the FOM president, and Luca di Montezemolo, the Ferrari president. The three men plan to meet to discuss possible changes to improve the spectacle in Formula 1, according to our British colleagues from *Autosport*.

Di Montezemolo against taxi driving

The strongman of the Scuderia reportedly is not satisfied with the new regulations and has already met Bernie Ecclestone this Wednesday or Thursday in London to urgently start discussions on the matter, after realizing that the anticipated spectacular aspect following the regulatory change had not occurred.

In addition to the show he considers poor, Di Montezemolo doesn’t like the new economic aspect of F1: “I don’t like this kind of taxi driving,” he told our Italian colleagues at Autosprint. “What I don’t like is the complexity of interpreting the race, whether for the drivers or the spectators.”

The spectators, or at least the internet users, expressed themselves on the Scuderia Ferrari website in a rather binary and imprecise poll: Do you like the new F1? To which the voters (over 50,000 according to the team’s website) answered No at 83%, with all the usual reservations linked to this type of consultation. The site acknowledges, for instance, that the proportion of No increased quite significantly following the Malaysian Grand Prix, marked by a Mercedes one-two in front of Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull.

Di Montezemolo will be almost on home ground during this meeting as Bernie Ecclestone has repeatedly reaffirmed his opposition to the new regulations, particularly regarding the noise produced by the 1.6L Turbo V6 engines, and Jean Todt has already indicated that he is not against changes.

However, the new regulations, which were developed in agreement with Ferrari, aimed to bring F1 closer to the requirements of production cars, which ensured Renault’s presence and attracted Honda back, who will partner with McLaren next season.

For Alonso, a change would bring nothing

Fernando Alonso, speaking to the BBC, indicated that, in his opinion, a change in the rules wouldn’t bring much: “I don’t think they will make big changes or make a big difference compared to what they have now. If they allow more fuel in the fast cars, then they will be even faster. And the cars that are slow will be a little less slow. It’s not that which will make the Marussia or the Caterham, with all due respect, win a race.”

To make a regulatory change during the season, unanimous agreement from all the teams is also required. This condition seems impossible to meet today, as some teams—like Mercedes, which currently dominates this new era, or McLaren—have no interest in or do not wish to modify the current formula.